Izzy's POV
I felt like I was in a horror movie, and we fucked up as badly as all the stupid characters did. The only weapons we had to protect ourselves were in the house with the people trying to kill us. We hid in the tree line as we watched them tear the house apart. This wasn't some misunderstanding like when Harry showed up, this was a shake down. We were just lucky we weren't home, or it would have been a lot worse than just that.
"They've been in there for a half hour." I said, looking to Luke as we crouched behind a tree.
"Sophie gimme your phone." He held his hand out to her, waiting for the only phone that we had out here.
"We're too far away to connect to the wifi and I don't have service." She said, and Luke took his hand back and fell to the ground in frustration. We were sitting ducks out here, and it was now pitch black out. The fact that the numerous wild animals we should have been worrying about were at the bottom of the priority list was horrifying.
"Lorenzo has to have guns stashed somewhere." I said, and I turned to Harry as the gears in his head started turning.
"He's got a room off the garage that you can only get into with a passcode. There's a whole arsenal in there." He explained, and I knew I wasn't going to like this plan.
"We have to get in there." Luke said. I whipped my head around and glared at him.
"I'd rather wait it out than send you in there." I told him, but he put his hand to the back of my neck and pulled me closer to him.
"They know we've been staying here, they just tore through all our shit. If we don't get to them they're going to come back." He said sternly, but it went in one ear and out the other.
"If you're going in I'm coming with you." He couldn't believe I even said it, but he laughed it off.
"No, you're not." He chuckled, standing up to walk over to Harry.
"Luke." I grabbed his hand and stood up in front of him. "Please don't do this." I begged.
"Cal." Luke nodded at Calum, signaling to join in on the mission. "Stay with Sophie." He told me, walking off with Harry and Calum while the rest of us stayed behind. I got that this was a stealth operation, but he could have at least taken more than two guys with him. Sophie came up and hugged me as I stood frozen.
"They're gonna die." I said quietly, but she pulled away and grabbed my face.
"They're not dying, Izz. They know what they're doing." She tried to make me get a hold of myself, but I looked past her to see the three of them sneaking through the backyard.
I sat down and waited it out for a second, and Sophie sat back down in between me and Ashton. I knew it was stupid, and I knew I had no place going in there. The second their guard was down though, I bolted. I heard them calling quietly after me, but I just kept running along the rock wall that bordered the pool. They were already up along the side of the house, and when I saw them turn the corner where the garage doors were, I ran the rest of the way to the house.
These people have already almost killed me, and I'd be damned if I let them kill Luke. I didn't know how much of a help I could possibly be, but I'd rather die trying than sit back and watch him get shot. I crouched under the windows as I walked along the side of the house they were just on, and when I turned the corner I saw them leaned against the wall next to the door. When Luke saw me, he crawled over to me and grabbed my face.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" He asked, looking at me with guilt.
"I can help, just let me help." I said, and he dropped my face and covered his.
"Just stay in the vault when we get in there." He told me, and I nodded in agreement. It was better than nothing.
"They just left the garage." Harry whispered, opening the door ever so slowly.
We followed behind him as he led us through the garage, and even though they weren't in there anymore we still ducked behind the covered cars. Harry went over and typed in the passcode, and he cringed when the door clicking unlocked was uncomfortably loud. He rushed us in and shut the door quietly behind us, and when he flicked the light on my eyes went wide. I think I saw a rocket launcher in there, and if I didn't know better I'd have thought I was in a military base.
"Here." Harry handed Luke some kind of assault rifle, and then Calum something similar. They were really going up there with automatic weapons.
"Take this and stay in here." Luke came up to me and handed me a pistol. I was passed the point of fear, since there was too much adrenaline in my system to even be scared. "I love you." He said, pulling me in to kiss me one last time.
"I love you too. Just come back to me, okay?" I said, putting my hand to his cheek. He nodded and followed Harry and Cal out of the room.
I sat there for a few minutes, not actually freaking out. It wasn't until I heard gun shots that I started to tweak. I was pacing back and forth as I lost my mind, and every gun shot that rang through the house only made it worse. I didn't even think, I just took the pistol and went out the door. I crept into the house and snuck up the stairs, every little sound making me whip my head around. I heard shouting from the top floor, but when I got to the door into floor from the basement, I cracked it open.
There was a body on the floor in the hall right in front of me, so I covered my mouth and tried to breath. I stood there for a second and pushed down the hyperventilating so I could move forward. I pushed the door open just enough for me to squeeze through, and I checked everywhere to make sure it was clear. I tip toed down the hall and stopped at the end of the wall before the living room.
"Keenan, you don't have to do this." I heard Luke's voice from around the corner, and when I peeked around the wall I saw him standing with his hands up.
I saw the back of Keenan's body and the gun he was pointing at Luke, and I had to turn back and get my shit together. I remembered the conversation I had with him and Brett the day after we got back together. They had mentioned Keenan disappearing after setting them up with the meeting, and this must have been why. He was the inside job, and he was coming back to finish it.
"No, see, I have a chance to make real money for once. Brett kept me at arm's length so he could keep it all to himself. All I had to do was take a couple of you out, but you fucked that all up when your girlfriend drank the water." Keenan said, but I could hear how shaky his voice was.
"You're telling me that you put the cyanide in her car?" Luke asked, and I started to panic. He was about to get himself killed by going after him, and when I peeked around the corner again I saw the steam coming out of his ears.
"I had a few friends do it. I didn't want to get my hands dirty. But here we are. If you want it done right you have to do it yourself." Keenan said, lifting the gun higher to get his aim right.
I didn't think about a lot of things before doing them tonight, but when the person you love most in this world is in danger I guess logic goes out the window. I didn't know if I was actually going to be a help to them by coming inside, but when I saw Keenan's gun click it all started to go in slow motion. Out of all the stupid decisions, this was probably the stupidest.
"No!" I screamed and ran around the corner, aiming the pistol in my hands at Keenan. I think I fired twice, but if you asked me I wouldn't be able to give you a concrete answer. When I saw his body hit the floor I dropped the gun. Luke just looked at me in shock, but once it wore off he ran over and grabbed Keenan's gun. He kicked him a few times to see if he would move, but when he didn't budge I fell back against the wall.
"What did I do?" I asked, lifting my hands up to see them shaking uncontrollably. The slow motion affect had worn off, and now I was just standing there while the world seemed to go a mile a minute.
"What happened?!" Calum came around the corner and looked at us, and I heard footsteps coming down the stairs to our right. Calum raised his gun, but when he saw that it was Harry he lowered it.
"Everything's clear upstairs." Harry said, but when he saw me cowered against the wall he looked to Luke.
"Is he dead?" I asked emotionlessly, lifting my head to see Luke exchanging glances with the two of them.
"Yeah." He said, walking over to where I was up against the wall. "Yeah, he's dead, Izz." He held onto my hands and felt how jittery they were.
"Okay." I whispered. "Okay, um. We should get him to the hospital then." I rambled, not even understanding what he was telling me.
"Izzy." Luke pulled my face into his hands and made me look right at him. "Izzy, he's dead."
"Yeah, but they can help him." I said, and I didn't realize I was crying until he started wiping the tears away with his thumbs.
"They can't help him, baby, he's dead." He repeated himself, and it actually started to sink in.
"He's dead." I started nodding my head slowly. "Okay."
"Are you sure you understand?" He asked cautiously, and when I nodded my head again he pulled me into a hug. I just stood there motionless while he stroked the back of my head. "Call your dad." Luke said, and Harry went to the landline that they had in the kitchen. I saw Calum reach for the gun I had dropped, and when he pulled out the mag there was only one bullet left. I brushed that disturbing fact to the back of my mind as I tried to ground myself.
I heard Harry explaining everything to Lorenzo, but by the time he was off the phone I realized it didn't stick in my head. Luke pulled away and started walking me over to the back deck, and I think I heard him tell Calum to go get the others outside. He sat me down on one of the chairs and kneeled in front of me, searching my face for any sort of emotion.
"Izz." He said, but I didn't answer. "Izz!" He said louder, and I finally looked at him.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"You're in shock, babe. Just try to talk to me." He grabbed onto my hands and tried to get me to hold a conversation, but I couldn't get my brain to work.
The next couple hours felt like days as we waited for Lorenzo to get here. We stayed out on the deck and Luke kept trying to check on me, but after the first hour went by I ended up throwing up over the side of the railing. He managed to find a blanket that didn't have blood all over it and draped it around me, probably because I was shivering? I sat against the railing, and after that I stopped responding all together.
Lorenzo came in pissed, and he had a group of guys following behind him. I watched from the back deck as they started cleaning everything up. It was like I was watching a John Wick movie, the guys in white plastic suits coming in and making it look like a dozen guys weren't just killed in the house. It took them an hour to get it all done, and they packed up all the bodies in the back of a van and drove off.
"Keenan was the only way they knew where you were. I don't see them continuing this without him." Lorenzo came up to Luke and started talking business. "I'm having them drop the bodies right on their doorstep."
"Where do we go from here?" Luke asked.
"Go home. Tomorrow morning they'll know they're fighting a war they can't win." He said, patting Luke on the shoulder. Lorenzo turned to where I was curled up under the blanket and came over. "Isabel." He lifted my head up by putting his hand under my chin. "He wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for you." I nodded, and for the first time there was a fleeting moment without guilt.
Lorenzo walked away and told us to get whatever we could of our belongings. The guys went in and grabbed every last thing as Sophie and I followed Lorenzo to the front porch. When the guys came back out they loaded up the cars. Harry, Niall, and Louis said good bye to us all as we got into them. Everyone agreed to meet at our apartment, so I drove with Luke while the guys drove with Sophie. She was too shaken up to be behind the wheel, so Ashton took over for her.
They followed us the whole way there, and I told Luke to just play loud music. I didn't want to talk, and I didn't even want to think. It was nearly 3 in the morning, so we didn't get home until just before 6. I was shocked when we pulled up in the drive way, since the drive didn't even feel like it lasted an hour. I got out and saw that my car was now white instead of black, and it had new plates on it.
I helped Luke carry our bags in, and the others followed us inside so we could finally sleep. The sun was coming up already, so we closed all the curtains that Brett must have put up while we were gone. They were the ones we bought at Walmart that day, and he even put the rug down in the living room. We hadn't really been here in almost three weeks, so getting safely inside made me feel more secure than I had been that entire time.
Luke told Ashton and Sophie to take the guest room, and he handed blankets to Calum and Mike so they could sleep on the couches. When we got to our bedroom, he still had his bloody clothes on. He quickly took them off and threw them into one of the trash bags we still had on the floor. I was a lot more lucid at that point, so I changed out of the jean shorts and tee I had been wearing all day at the lake.
When I realized I didn't have my phone I startedsearching my bags, but Luke came up and handed it to me like he knew exactlywhat I was looking for. I put it on the charger and crawled into bed, himfollowing behind me and wrapping me up in his arms. I was exhausted in every waypossible, and the second my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.